20 September 2009: Addis Ababa
Posted By Sika on June 9, 2010
It was Sunday and Eid, and so the streets of Addis were thrumming with people who didn’t have to be at work. Semien hotel, where we were staying, was just off the piazza (ah, Italian attempts at colonization) and we needed to head from there further into town to find one of the few ATMs that accepted foreign cards. We got lost a couple times: one of the roundabouts in the Lonely Planet map wasn’t much of a landmark in real life, so we kept thinking we were further away from the piazza than we were.*
One lady told us not to sit where we were, because it was dangerous, but the stairs around the corner were safe. The most objectionable people we saw, were two guys pissing in the street, which I’ve seen in nearly every country I’ve ever been in, but usually people are a little less obvious about it. That’s not so bad.
One man, whose name I’ve forgotten, had the day off because of Eid, and attached himself to us so he could practice his English. He was very clear he didn’t want anything, so maybe it was really just English he was after. When we told this to Nebil later, he didn’t believe it: he said the guy was hoping he’d meet us again, and then he’s hit us up for money or whatever. Then again, Nebil was pretty down on people from Addis. And people from Axum. And anywhere else north of Harar, I think.
Sometimes the only way to free oneself from someone who has glommed on is to go somewhere they can’t go. So, after we found that the Dashen (the only type of ATM that works with foreign cards) ATM we were trying didn’t work, we decided to go to the Ethnographic Museum. In a taxi. But, after the taxi driver tried to drop us at the National Museum instead, We finally stopped at the Ethnographic Museum, and the driver tried to tell us that we had asked to go to the National Museum, I was very firm and a bit annoyed,** told him he was wrong. When we got out of the car, Mom said that I was too quick to anger or get rude or something like that. My reply was that, when people make noises like that they’re usually going to try to raise the price next, and the only way not to get into an argument is to make sure they know, from the start, that this argument is going nowhere. Mom thought I should’ve waited til I knew for certain he was going to hassle us. I don’t know which of us is right, I suspect I am, but if he was just commenting, I made all three of our days a little worse for no reason.
The museums were closed, because of Eid. Oops.
So, we went to the Ethiopian Air offices instead, which were not closed because of Eid. The people working there were very nice. We’d sit in the chairs, chat for a bit, go ask a question, discuss some more, go ask another question, etc., ad nauseum. Only, it didn’t seem to ad nauseum. Eventually, after reworking the itinerary a couple times due to full flights, we booked tickets for each of us. 5 flights, and because we had flown in on Ethiopian Air and still had our tickets, all 10 flights together (mom’s and mine) cost us $426. Each flight has a different discount percentage for people who fly into the country on Ethiopian Air, but one of ours was a 60% discount. The guy at Ethiopian Air even figured out which near by Dashen ATM would work with our cards and gave us good instructions to find it.
I’ve heard that riding in the buses is difficult because people don’t want to let evil spirits in, so you can’t open the windows, and because many people on the buses haven’t been on one before or don’t ride them often enough, so they get car sick. Also, one of our flights took 2 hours, but by bus it takes 3 days. So, yeah, I didn’t want that.
We celebrated by finding Veronica’s Cafe and getting a club sandwich, which was not exactly what I was expecting, what with the hot peppers and all, but it was excellent. Seriously.
We also had another fruit salad from the 7th floor bar at Semien—they put something on it, I think rose syrup, that makes it incredible. And then we relaxed into our overly squishy and sinkable beds.
*also, we’re both directionally challenged.
**Not the least because a)I didn’t think we had gotten a good price anyway, and b) the museums are very near each other, anyway.
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